The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition

Experience the greatest legend in gaming in the ultimate Zelda collection.

JP release: 7th November 2003
EU release: 14th November 2003
NA release: 17th November 2003
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

A Zelda collection that didn’t get a retail release. It was available in a console bundle with Mario Kart Double Dash!!, a Club Nintendo points purchase in Japan and Europe and a few offers where you could send in receipts to get sent a copy (in the USA, you had to register a GameCube plus two games out of a list of four while in the UK, you just had to send in proof of purchase of one of six games) as well as certain magazine subscriptions, like Nintendo Power. There ended up being quite a few copies out there so it wasn’t too difficult (or expensive) to get hold of.

The collection includes a bunch of classic Zelda games, a demo and a couple of videos, one being a trailer of Wind Waker and the other is a retrospective of the mainline Zelda games, along with pointing out that you can play all of them on GameCube – once you attach the Game Boy Player. The release of A Link to the Past on GBA is likely the main reason it wasn’t included in this package. We still got plenty of greatness.

I only tested these out a little bit as I’m more than familiar with the game (plus I have this disc and played it when I was younger).

The Legend of Zelda

The original Legend of Zelda. Start in the middle of the screen with no sword and figure it all out yourself. There are dungeons to find, enemies to kill and puzzles to solve – although a few too many are bombing completely random spots.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Very much the odd one out, both in terms of the name and gameplay, this one being a bit more like a traditional RPG with random battles and a lot of levelling up. However, instead of turn-based battles, you get sent to a side-scrolling arena – some of them being platforming challenges.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The second time Ocarina of Time has been included on a GameCube bonus disc. It runs in a higher resolution than the original, but this version does seem to have some framerate issues. It allows you to use the X, Y and Z buttons for items and renames Z-Targeting to L-targeting in-game, and the colours of A and B have been changed.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

A haunting quest. As this was a late N64 game, it was great to have another way to play it, although this had even more framerate issues and was prone to crashing and could erase your save data.

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Demo

Play Wind Waker for 20 minutes at a time. You can start at the first dungeon, Windfall Island (right after getting the sail) or the Forbidden Fortress. You can reach Dragon Roost Island and listen to the amazing music there. If you remove the timers, you can get as far as the Temple of the Gods, where the game will crash as the data isn’t on this disc.

It’s definitely a wonderful package, but the N64 emulation isn’t the best and there weren’t many improvements or features added (button remapping would have been nice). Back in the day, it was amazing, but there’s better ways to play these games now.

Great

The games (faithfully presented with their original graphics) serve as a great introduction to one of the most successful and innovative game franchises of all time.
Nintendo Power

Remake or remaster?

Nice new versions of all these games would be wonderful.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to buy The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, but all the games are available to rent on NSO.